Day Camp or Overnight Camp: Which is Better for My Child?

As summer approaches, parents are thinking of what extracurricular activities their children can be doing while children are simply ecstatic that school is finally over and are thinking of quality time with friends. Why not make the most of your summer and get a healthy balance of both? Summer camps are a way for kids to make new friends, new memories, and new skills. Better yet, you get some well-deserved relaxation time.

There is still the daunting choice between enrolling your child into summer day camp or summer overnight camp. While there are benefits to both – as we will outline soon – the final decision depends on what you and your child feel is the best fit for them.

Keep in mind that there is always the option of participating in both – summer is 8 weeks long, after all! In fact, day camp can be a fantastic transition step to overnight camp. We at Camp Tournesol also offer partial overnight weeks for a blend of both.

Summer Day Camps

Many summer day camps are often geared toward activities within the realm of arts, sports, or education, all of which can stimulate your children’s learning during summer. Each day camp presents different benefits for your children – they are an effective way to boost your child’s self-esteem, make new friends, and dabble in various activities they may want to pursue in the future. Here is a list of advantages your child can experience by participating in summer day camps:

Continue learning/improving on skills during the summer

A chance to unplug from technology

Remaining active

Trying out new sports, creative outlets, or other activities

Making new friends

Easy transition into overnight camps

We at Camp Tournesol are a French summer day camp that strives to improve your child’s reading and oral ability in French. In other words, we encourage campers to speak French as much as possible to create a drastic improvement in your child’s French ability and to ensure they are comfortable with the language.The most unique aspect of our camp is that it encourages children to see French as more than just another subject at school and as a language that they can actively speak while having fun during the summer. Our day camps offer arts and crafts, sports, games, and many other types of activities – all in French!

Summer Overnight Camps

Participating in anovernight camp has become increasingly popular for children and adolescents. It gives the opportunity to be away from parents and be immersed in a different environment. While overnight camps have activities that are similar to what children would experience in day camps, overnight camps are for those who are ready for some independence.

Some families and children are often discouraged from the idea of an overnight camp as anxiety or fear of separation issues often arise. In addition to the benefits of summer day camps, here are further advantages that can come out of overnight camps.

Develop and strengthen resilience

Test and overcome limits

Build meaningful friendships

An overnight camp is also a great way to test limits. At an overnight camp, children can accomplish their goals under the watchful eye of a responsible adult. As such, overnight camps are safe environments for children to test their independence and set new goals.

Similar to day camps, overnight camps facilitate teamwork and build deep friendships. Overnight camps are likely to present problems that are not often encountered in day camps. Therefore, your child will learn how to cope and how to problem solve in these types of situations. He or she will be exposed to different types of people, people that they may or may not get along with. By finding ways to get along with a variety of people with different personalities, your child will learn how to cooperate and emphasize with others.

Overnight camps may sound intimidating at first as homesickness often hits those who have never participated in one before. However, homesickness is often the beginning of resilience. By overcoming their homesickness, your child has begun on their journey of independence.

At Camp Tournesol, overnight camp will allow your child to be even more immersed in an academic environment geared toward improving speaking and reading in French. Compared to day camps, an overnight camp is a twenty-four-hour practice vicinity where your child is continuously learning and applying what he or she has learned. This allows vocabulary and sentence structures to be better remembered.

Which to choose?

To summarize, day camps are best for children who:

Are younger

Have less experience with attending summer camps in general

Want to dabble in a variety of new skills and activities

Want to remain close to home

Still require some French practice and assistance

Overnight camps are best for children who:

Are older or more mature

Have been to summer day camps

Want to build independence and resilience

Are ready to become fully fluent in French

Once again, Camp Tournesol offers partial overnight weeks that will allow for an easy transition between day camp and overnight camp.

Need More Information?

If you are unsure of which camp is best suitable for your child, give us a call, and we will be more than happy to discuss opportunities and give you a run-down of what you and your child can be expecting in each camp.

About Camp Tournesol

Since 2001, we have provided French camps in the GTA for tens of thousands of children ages 4 to 14. Whether your child is Francophone, in French Immersion, or has no French experience, we have a day camp suitable for them. Fun activities included!
Overnight camps are also available for children ages 8 to 15, as well as a leadership weekend and an exciting 13-day trip to Quebec.